the time between rulers; a space between; the gap after one epoch ends and another begins; the tumultuous and exciting period after scholarly boundaries become fluid and before new academic disciplines are fully defined; the blog of New York University's Draper Program

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

The Threesis Challenge is an academic competition for GSAS master's students. Students present the work of their thesis or final project (eg. creative project, science experiment or research paper) to a panel of three faculty judges in accessible language a non-expert can understand in three minutes or less. Competitors are judged on how well they grasp the subject of their thesis, their ability to discuss the topic to non-experts and presentation skills. Students compete for a grand prize of $1,000 and other prizes while learning to organize ideas and speak about them persuasively in a fun, academic atmosphere. This competition is adopted from the Three Minute Thesis Challenge currently taking place in Australia and New Zealand. The Master's College is proud to bring this "American Idol" style academic competition to this hemisphere.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Our Thanksgiving-themed weekly photo finds are all part of the LoC's George Grantham Bain Collection and feature "Thanksgiving Maskers." According to this article, Masking was a popular Thanksgiving tradition in the early 1900s. Per the article,

Before Halloween became the holiday it now is in the United States, children would dress up in masks on the final Thursday in November and go door to door for treats (think: fruit!), or scramble for pennies. The tradition was known as Thanksgiving Masking.

Below are some shots of a Thanksgiving Masking celebrationaround 1910:

This conference aims to open up dialogue among graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, faculty, and independent scholars who critically engage with analytics of race/racialization and ‘the environment’, broadly conceived.We are interested in understanding how scholars understand the experiences, practices, creativities, political economies and subjectivities of racialized groups in relationship to the spaces that they move through and create: the environment, nature and cities. In what ways do racialized experiences and identities come to structure narratives, practices, and politics in relationship to built and “natural” environments? If racialization occurs in and through places, how are these processes sedimented or resisted by people? How do racial constructs connect to spatial/environmental ones and vice versa – and why does it matter?

Interdisciplinary scholars have developed a large body of literature that considers the role of race/racialization in the context of spatial inequality, marginalization and oppression. Increasingly, scholars have interrogated the roles of agency and innovation in environmental practice among various racial groups, including the forms through which racial analytics help to shape those interactions.This one-day conference will critically engage these questions in order to ask: How do issues of race and racialization intersect with spatial/environmental/territorializing practices, discourses, and politics in the contemporary moment? We seek papers from a variety of theoretical, disciplinary, and methodological perspectives. This includes but is not limited to topics such as:

The symposium will include a working lunch where we will match scholars with others in their fields. The event is open to the public, free, and includes lunch with registration, as funds allow.We will conclude with a keynote from UC Berkeley Assistant Professor Carolyn Finney (ESPM).

To participate, please submit a 250 word abstract by January 15 to conference organizers Rachel Brahinsky, Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, and Jade Sasser at race.conference.berkeley@gmail.com. Please include, in the body of the email: your name, affiliation, contact information, and abstract. We will respond to submissions in early February. Once accepted, final papers must be submitted two weeks before the symposium.

All seminars take place at the Society, 1154 Boylston St., Boston, MA,and commence at 5:15 p.m. Each seminar consists of a discussion of apre-circulated paper provided to our subscribers. (Papers will beavailable at the event for those who choose not to subscribe.)Afterwards the Society will provide a light buffet supper.

All seminars are free and open to the public. As in the past, we aremaking the essays available to subscribers as .pdfs through theseminar's webpage, http://www.masshist.org/events/behs.cfm. Subscribe tothe 2010-2011 series online via this page. A $25 subscription willentitle you to the full series of papers. Questions? Contact Kate Viensat 617-646-0568 or kviens@masshist.org.

RSVP so we know how many will attend. To respond, emailseminars@masshist.org or call 617-646-0568. You may also write, e-mail,or phone if you wish to be removed from this mailing list.

Monday, November 22, 2010

“The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.”

—Barack Obama, Inaugural Address, January 20, 2009

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 1, 2010

4:00-6:00 PM

Dept. of Social & Cultural Analysis

20 Cooper Square, 4th Floor

New York, NY 10003

Beginning as a modest effort in early 2009 to capture the historic moment of our first black president’s inauguration in photographs and interviews, the “Our Better History” project and the Historian’s Eye website have evolved into an expansive collection of some 1300+ photographs and an audio archive addressing Obama’s first term in office, the ’08 economic collapse and its fallout, two wars, the raucous politics of healthcare reform, the emergence of a new right-wing formation in opposition to Obama, the politics of immigration, Wall Street reform, street protests of every stripe, the BP oil spill, and the escalation of anti-Muslim sentiment nationwide. In addition to catching this moment like a firefly in a mason jar, the project seeks to encourage a new relationship to history itself—a mental habit of apprehending the past in the present and history-in-the-making.

Matthew Frye Jacobson is professor of American Studies, History, and African American Studies atYale and author of five books in the areas of immigration, race, empire, and US political culture.